Ok, so a few days ago my oil pressure gauge pegged out to 60psi in the middle of a short 60 mile ride. So, I checked the oil level first which was right on the money. Next I checked for good oil return thinking that maybe I had a plugged line, but I had good return. So I figured it's got to be the pressure switch or the sending unit. So I went to harley and bought a new sending unit/ pressure switch and put it on... You guessed it pressure still pegged out. Bike is not running hot after riding it and getting it up to operating temp. No pinging and no unusual motor noise??? Could it be a grounded wire or just a bad gauge? Bike is a 2011 Street Glide with a 103". Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Could be your by-pass plunger is stuck, that would make your pressure high.

 

How would I go about knowing if that's it? And how would I fix it? I read that as a possibility in the service manual... Need to do more research

 

Hook up a machanical gauge, confirm where presure is. Then find the problem.

 

I will thanks for the help Troy

 

Well I don't know what you're mechanical abilities are, but checking the by-pass plunger is pretty simple. You would have to pull the cam cover, then you take a drift punch and drive a drift pin out of the cam plate. The spring and plunger will come out then. I would just replace them, they don't cost much. If there is something wrong with your cam plate that is making the plunger stick this probably won't fix it, but if the problem is the plunger itself then it should.

 

I'll give it a whirl and see if that's the issue. Thanks for the help $tonecold

 

Check that the aircleaner oil breather hoses have not collapsed and are preventing the motor from breathing. I had this with my Fuel Moto Air Cleaner, which is now out of the bike replaced with a Big Sucker with metal breathing tubes.

 

The oil pressure gauge is designed to indicate full scale deflection at a certain predetermined current measured in milliamps. The sending unit provides the driving current to a maximum of whatever that full deflection value is. Faultfinding would require you to apply this full scale deflection to the meter and confirm that it did drive the needle full scale. I have no idea what that value would be, it might be written on the bottom of the gauge (FS=1ma). You have swapped out the sender, that was not the problem, it could be the gauge.

 

Well... I put a small pressure gauge on the crank where the oil sending unit is and the gauge matched up closely with the oil pressure gauges reading. So now to open the cam cover... I have a buddy who is a pretty talented machinist and a roadside harley mechanic... We're gonna tackle it on Monday. Thanks for all the help & I will post my findings & hopefully our success story here.